Rare show of unity

*Forum to meet once a month

*Eighteen parties represented

*JVP, UNP, TNA active participants

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday urged all
political parties to join hands and work as a team shedding
differences, in forging national reconciliation and driving the
nation towards rapid development.

Solar power for rural Madulla

Healthcare Ministry updates dengue alert

The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry requested
the public to be more vigilant on mosquito breeding grounds and the
dengue epidemic these days because the most affected districts have
received occasional showers during the past weeks creating an ideal
environment for dengue mosquitoes.

Sri Lankan tea gains lost momentum

Sri Lankan tea continued to enjoy a strong
demand in the high grown market with the tea bag sector forcing
prices of smaller grades further up. The low grown market is
expected to remain strong despite a slightly increased offering in
the future owing to good demand from the Middle East prior to the
Ramadan season, weekly auction reports reveal.

Sri Lanka’s leading manufacturer of hume pipes, Lankan Hume Pipes
Company (Pvt) Ltd, (LHP) the only SLS 452 certified pipe manufacturer in
Sri Lanka and the largest supplier of pre-cast products for local and
foreign multinational companies, is fully operational to meet the
increasing demand. Here, workers at LHP welding a large frame of a hume
pipe at their factory at Polgasowita. The company is planning to set up
a factories in the North and the East in the future according to
Managing Director D. W. Jayantha Kumara. It is a hundred percent local
company which has provided employment to over 100 people. Pix by Saliya
Rupasinghe